A New “Roosevelt Coalition”?

Jeffrey Goldberg has an article in the current New Yorker about the prospects for the Democrats coming back to power. Amy Davidson interviews him about his article, and asks:

You write in your article that the Democrats want to win back the Reagan Democrats and rebuild the Roosevelt coalition. Can they do this without a Reagan or a Roosevelt?

Goldberg replies, sagely: “It’s hard without a Roosevelt to rebuild a Roosevelt coalition, that’s for sure.” That bit of wisdom out of the way, he continues:

By “Reagan Democrats,” what I mean are the Catholic, working-class, white suburbanites who have gradually left the Democratic Party. Since the McGovern period, there has been a feeling among many people in this country, particularly in those states that are not situated in the northeast or along the Pacific Coast, that the Democrats have a family problem, a God problem, and a national-security problem.I talked to Democrats from red states, Democrats who are popularly elected officials in states that have been going Republican in the Presidential race. They all say the same thing: part of their problem is policy—they need the Democratic Party to convince the voters that they, too, will stand up for American national security.

This makes me wonder what part of the Democrats’ problem Goldberg believes is not “policy,” but let’s leave that mystery aside. The dog that doesn’t bark, the unmentioned elephant in the china shop, in this analysis is race.

It’s true that blacks were not a major part of the “Roosevelt coalition,” at least while Roosevelt was alive. Most blacks in the South, after all, were still disenfranchised, and many voting blacks at that time were still Republicans. Still, the coalition did contain both the northern working class (many but not all of whom were Catholic) and virtually all Southern whites, many of whom were poor.

Today, of course, blacks, along with teachers and other members of public employee unions, are the most reliable component of the Democratic “base.” Does Goldberg, or anyone else, really believe that a new “Roosevelt coaltion” can be built by retrieving the lost “Reagan Democrats” while the party officially prefers — and urges (some would require) — colleges and employers to prefer some members of that coalition over other members? When the most activist elements of the Democratic base and more than a few Democratic leaders regard proposals to treat all individuals “without regard” to their race as racist?

Perhaps the Democrats can pioneer a new form of coalition, treating constituent members like stock — some preferred and some common.